Constructivist Conversations and Observations
Video Observation 8/26/10 To Sir With Love
INTASC Standard 5
Motivation and Management – The teacher uses an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior to create a learning environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.
What the teacher sees is a chaotic and unorganized situation. Students are doing whatever they want in the classrooms and the other teachers are uninspired. The teacher is met with students who do not want to be there, seem to care less about their education and are disrepectful.
The above INTASC standard fits this scenario in the sense that classroom management and motivation will be an integral part of the teacher’s classroom planning. He needs to find a way to motivate his students as well as set classroom rules and boundaries that will be effective in his classroom
In this clip, the students are there simply to be there, and this is a factor that the teacher needs to take into consideration. How is he going to change the dynamics of this class to encourage opportunities for learning and an overall interest to learn?

Power Teaching

Overview
Biffle goes over the six Power Teaching techniques with his class. Students learn the techniques in a kinesthetic and interactive manner – reviewing each technique learned with their class neighbor. Class – Yes, Teach –Okay, The Scoreboard, Micro-lecture, Hands and Eyes, and Comprehension Check.
Middle School with Biffle – Lesson One
Biffle teaches his class the classrooms rules and expectations using the Power Teaching techniques. When students are off task he explains that this is an opportunity for him to talk more and the students get less tech time – essentially he makes students active participants in the discipline process.
Lecture 2
Point of using Power teaching is to engage the students. Teachers can use the class-yes technique to gain students attention and may use this tool 20-40 times an hour.
Lecture 3
Important to go over rules and keep them fresh in students minds. Ways to keep students engaged with the rules is to give students the prompt, use a silly voice when going over rules and asking a student to come to the front of the class and give the prompt. Biffle emphasizes need to practice the rules.
Lecture 4
Biffle states that rule 2 – raise your hand for permission to speak – is one of the most important classroom management components. Instead of nagging students about this rule, he suggests turning a classroom disruption into student engagement by getting students to think about rule 2.
Lecture 5
In order for students to understand and synthesize the rules, Biffle suggests teachers have students break the rules to practice their responses. For rule 3 – students get out of their seats without permission and teacher says rule 3, students respond, rule 3 raise your hand for permission to leave seat. Then students practice by breaking the rule.
Lecture 6
Rule 4- make smart choices. Rule 4 is applicable in and out the classroom and gives opportunities for morale reasoning. It is a rule that encourages students to think about their choices and actions as well as a rule that the teacher can use in discussing classroom content.
Lecture 7
Rule 5 – make your teacher happy. This rule covers the challenges in classroom management – the situation in which there is not a specific rule. The rule was created to alleviate arguing between teacher and students – gives teacher the authority as the teacher is the “world’s greatest authority on what makes them happy.”
Lecture 8
Review of Power Teaching techniques – variety is important when using these techniques especially for class yes. A teacher can link concepts using the class yes technique for example content review. Tips for implementing Power Teaching techniques – practice the rules often, teacher needs to make sure that students understand they will let students know when to focus on the rules.Bloom's Taxonomy
INTASC 4 – Multiple Instructional Strategies – The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage student development of critical thinking, problem-solving, and performance skills. 7 –Planning-The teacher plans instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, students, the community, and curriculum goals.
Bloom’s Taxonomy and Lesson Planning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrKmM1cEffU&feature=related
Bloom’s Taxonomy and Anderson’s revised Taxonomy – Bloom focuses on knowledge, content, Anderson focuses on remembering and understanding information. How to use Bloom’s Taxonomy in lesson planning – where is your lesson plan’s focus – evaluation, application or synthesis? Surface versus deep learning, facts, regurgitation, deep learning equals understanding and long term comprehension.
Intro to Assessment and Bloom
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZARe2_HQcA&NR=1
Six categories of Bloom’s taxonomy – knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation. The video explains each category and how it applies to a student and teacher. Essentially the categories are a process in which students learn and teachers focus on while creating lessons.
Vella’s Twelve Principles of Effective Teaching
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFYI_Qo8wpY&feature=related
An emphasis on interpersonal relationships by creating a safe classroom environment that is based on respect. Another principle is engaging students as well as creating opportunities for students to synthesize theory and practice.
Bloom’s Taxonomy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8Tx5zxNMFk&NR=1
Video illustrates Bloom’s Taxonomy coming together in sections. Essentially each layer builds off another layer to create a total approach to teaching and learning - whole picture of classroom learning.



Chapter 13 – Team Development, Team Training
INTASC
2. Student Development – The teacher understands how children learn and develop, and can provide learning opportunities that support a child’s intellectual, social, and personal development.
5. Motivation and Management –The teacher uses an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior to create a learning environment that encourages a positive social interaction, active engagement in learning and self-motivation.
· Difference between groups and teams – teams work together for a specific purpose, groups tend to focus more on individual accomplishments rather than the whole. Teams tend to be more effective and productive – “Overall, working in teams resulted in higher individual productivity than did working competitively or individualistically (Johnson & Johnson, 2009, pg. 529).”
· Often groups don’t work as a team and make individual decisions in stressful situations which can lead to miscommunication or lack of sharing important information.
· Building an effective team should include a small number of people, and team members who bring their own set of “skills and expertise” to the table. Teams also need access to the things that will help them to be successful i.e. – technology, space, support, etc.
· Authentic accountability for the team and individuals which come through everyone understanding her/his own role and responsibilities – important to have a way to measure group progress.
· To keep team progress moving forward it helps to introduce new information periodically. It gives teams a chance to grow and potentially move in a new direction.
· Behavioral problems in teams can stem from individual behaviors and impact the team’s effectiveness. Four behavioral problems – passive uninvolvement, active uninvolvement, independence, and taking charge are similar to behavior problems that can arise in the classroom.
· To address these behaviors takes observation and changing certain aspects of the team. For the passive uninvolvement make sure that the member has all the information to be an active participant in the team and make sure they understand they are essential to the team’s success. Important in the classroom that all the students feel that they are important to the success of the classroom. Active uninvolvement, make sure that the team member has a specific job as well as responsibility. For independence make sure that the task can only be completed with the interaction of others similar to the member who is taking charge. These behaviors can play a part in team dynamics in the classroom and are things to keep in mind when building teams.
Johnson D. & Johnson F., 2009, Joining together group theory and group skills, Pearson.

Easy Teacher #1
INTASC 1. Content Pedagogy – The teacher understand the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline he or she teaches and can create learning experiences that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful for students. 4. Multiple Instructional Strategies- The teacher understand and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage student development of critical thinking, problem-solving, and performance skills.

· Elements of surprise and wonder throughout this lesson, keeping students interested and engaged
· Content was interspersed throughout time with the students, not just one big long lecture on a subject
· Asking questions to draw more out of the students, questions were put in such a way that the teacher knew that the students would be able to draw conclusions, understand the concepts
· Used a kinesthetic exercise to not only re-motivate students but also provide an opportunity to learn more about science
· Brought relevancy to the lesson by helping students understand why things are done certain ways in science, understanding the process as important as understanding the material

· Expectations – teacher had expectations for her class, as individual learners and a group

Chapter 3 - Developing Objectives - Thematic
· Objectives are specific expectations, for example the student will be able to… and how will students demonstrate the learning objective
· Develop objectives using Bloom’s taxonomy and key words that reflect the level - evaluate…explain, interpret, rate, etc. creates objectives that will coordinate with goals of the objective.